chew
by valakaite
Summary: i don't really know where i intended to take this, it started as a drabble and i kind of just went with it. its really not the best out there. -wheatley has strange habits from aperture that are due to lack of healthcare.-


He always had habits she thought were strange. He wouldn't stand in front of windows. He always looked at himself if he found a reflective surface of any kind. He talked to himself when he thought she wasn't listening. But strangest of all is he always mashed his food up. She noticed this first in aperture with a fine meal of potatoes (again).

He took the side of his hand and squished the raw starch till it became a powder almost. She knew that you could eat mashed boiled potatoes but eating them raw on top of having them as a strange starchy compote sounded unfavorable. But he did it again when she found a can of beans, mashing them into a paste and then shoveling the messy goop into his mouth with his hands.

After GLaDOS had set her free, she had set herself up quite nicely in a small town. When Wheatley appeared at her doorstep almost a year later, ragged and beaten, and after several apologies Chell had the ability to begrudgingly take him in. he slept in the garage on a small fold out cot, but he seemed more than happy to "have a real bed" as he put it.

The first meal they ate together she tried to give his malnourished body at least something to work with, she'd have to go to the store and get something like a supplement perhaps, he was distressingly thin. It was a plate of fruits and vegetables, which he immediately started mashing.

She let him mash and eat it (he was extremely excited about all the flavors and smells) but after words she asked him about it. He got nervous and gave her a noncommittal shrug, turning so he didn't have to look at her. That wouldn't do.

She tapped the side of his head and told him to tell her or she'd kick him out. Fear washed over his face and he sunk into himself, muttering something. She didn't hear him and told him to speak up. "I can't chew" he huffed at her.

That didn't really make a lot of sense, but it obviously seemed to bother him so she let it go. As she started giving him new things she noticed that he pretty avidly avoided small crunchy things like crackers, while he couldn't really get enough or more paste-like foods like yoghurt.

She finally decided to actually have a look in his mouth after he had come back from the doctors on a nutrition visit she sent him on due to his weight.

She was rather disgusted by what she saw. In addition to the canine in front that was gone he was missing several of his back teeth, and the ones he did have, were in very poor condition. She moved back to look at his front teeth, his not looking at her in a mix of shame and confusion.

He'd have to see a dentist she finally resolved.

When he did, he really didn't enjoy it. At all.

The final verdict on the matter was to either, pull what teeth he had left and give him a false set, which Wheatley avidly was against to the point of screaming and crying about it, or to implant fake ceramic teeth. Wheatley was against that as well but not as much as the first option.

Chell worried about the cost of this endeavor, but due to the nature of Wheatley and Chell's situation, and the attention their story had gathered from media, the insurance company stepped in and simply paid for it. Of all the things Chell had never expected it was the kindness from other people to help them out with a problem like this.

The ceramic teeth Wheatley got were much whiter and cleaner than his old teeth. It made him look like some strange shark in a way because he would smile to show his molars every time he passed a reflective surface. Chell secretly hoped he'd stop that soon, it bothered her for some unknown reason.

Despite all this years and years of living without any sort of medical care in the bowels of aperture was a hard habit to kick, and wheatley still very often mashed his food. He was still skittish about loud noises and tried to talk to electronics.

It got on chells nerves sometimes, just how odd and quirky he was, but at the end of the day its who he was. He didn't complain that she rarely slept so she was often grouchy, or that sudden movements made her crouch into testing position.

Regardless of how strange it may have been its just who they were.


End file.
